Not even GNOME itself could ignore the GNOME 3 criticism for much longer. "As part of the planning for the DropOrFixFallbackMode feature, we've decided that we will compile a list of supported gnome-shell extensions. This will be a small list, focused on just bringing back some central 'classic' UX elements: classic alt tab, task bar, min/max buttons, main menu. To ensure that these extensions keep working, we will release them as a tarball, just like any other module."

It is true, Linux should really return to the fine old Gnome 2 days, when it was king of the desktop and seemed unstoppable. It was always foolish of the Gnome devs to piss off that 0.3% of the market they had in the bag. When you are winning with that kind of numbers what you do is sit still and consolidate.